Café Culture
When spending a significant amount of time in a town or city, there are two things I like to be sure of; one is where I can get a decent cup of coffee in nice surroundings, and the other is where I can go to the toilet. I’m about to write about the former, because an article about the latter would just list ‘Debenhams; by the Covered Market; underneath Magdalen Bridge’, and wouldn’t be much of a read.
The trick to finding good cafés is in not going straight into the first Starbucks you see; its been a year and three months and I’ve still never been in an Oxford Starbucks which I’m quite happy about, particularly as they don’t serve actual coffee but buckets of caramel-drizzled cream instead.
It’s all about avoiding the easy, safe choice. You know what you’re getting from a Starbucks (and for that matter, a Columbia Coffee, a Costa Coffee, and a Café Nero as well) so when you feel in the mood for some comfy seats, oversized muffins, the distinct strains of The Decemberists in the background and a slight caffeine kick, you know where you can go. In the same way, you know that no matter where you are in the world, you can go into any branch of McDonalds and receive a disappointing, tasteless Bacon Double McAngina with medium fries — it may be bad but at least it’s consistently so.
“You know what they call a Bacon Double McAngina in France? A L’Angina avec le lard”
But every town has at least one good coffee shop, you just have to track it down. I even found one in Weston-Super-Mare once, a nice little place in a 1960s Italian style and run by a man who served freshly-made Italian coffee and hot chocolate with flavours like ‘Granny’s Snickerdoodle’, which at the time sounded dangerously interesting to me and not, well, a bit twisted.
So Bristol has The Boston Tea Party, Canterbury has Le Café St. Pierre (complete with surly Frenchmen) and Oxford has about half-a-dozen or so that I frequent. If I’m in a hurry then there’s Café Coco for an espresso, but if I’ve got a bit more time to kill then it’s The Grand Café for a leisurely cafetière of Dark Columbian. If I’m in the city centre then it’s into the Covered Market to Georgina’s (if it’s not too busy)…there’s usually somewhere I can go.
I’ve been weeping like a willow
I like cafés, in the same way that most English people seem to like pubs. I don’t much like pubs — smoky and claustrophobic and occasionally entirely at the mercy of a crazy drunk — but I find cafés to be inviting, warm and comfortable, they’re places where I can open my laptop or open a book and nobody minds either way. Alternatively I can chat for an hour with a friend or two over cups of coffee and not have to shout over the the awful jukebox that’s playing Is This The Way To Amarillo? for the third time that night, or the thumping Cuban dance music that’s played at high volume for the benefit of the clubbing Friday-night crowd.
The ideal situation for me would be if these cafés opened well into the night, but they tend not to, or if they do then they stop serving coffee and start serving cocktails which isn’t quite what I’m after. Still, at least with cocktails you get to see the barmen do one of those funny little dances like they’re Tom Cruise in 1988, and try as I might, I’ve never managed to get anyone to do a dance while serving me coffee.
Remind me to visit Oxford sometime… sounds like a cool place. (No, I won’t get in your way on the sidewalk, and I never take snapshots.)
There’s something about sipping down a great cup of coffee that makes one feel very intellectual. Across from where I work, my there’s a Starbucks and just ordering a Marble Mocha Macchiato makes me feel important…lol.
I wish I’d been able to find places like that in Bracknell, or even Reading (who am I kidding, there’s nothing in Bracknell). There’s a Starbucks across the road from me at work and I got asked 6 times on Friday if I wanted anything from there. Responding in the negative earned me a look usually reserved for someone who’s accidentally insulted their entire family in a foreign language.
I think I’ll go find myself a green tea in the canteen. Only 35p – bargain.
Oxford does sound like a nice place I really must visit sometime.
Canterbury seems to be breeding coffee shops at the moment and they are almost always full.
Sittingbourne (where I work) lacks charm and culture in every possible way. Even a Starbucks would be an asset here, but it might confuse the chav population. It’s greasy spoons all the way and the scariest Wetherspoons I’ve ever known. Thankfully the surrounding local villages have beautifully quaint pubs that are almost idyllic for lunches.
Yeah, Georgina’s was nice – I enjoyed the hot chocolate there. And Boston Tea Party in Bristol is one of my favourites, the kind of place where you almost expect someone to start a philosophical discussion and everyone else to join in.
I’ve never been to Le Cafe St Pierre – maybe I will frequent it when I’m down in Canters this weekend.
Posts like this make me miss Oxford desperately. Have you been to The Rose, on High St? Best scones in town, imo.
Yes, The Rose is nice as well. They do a really tasty breakfast which is full of locally-produced organic stuff; it looks a bit minimalist when it reaches your table but it’s worth it.
I was also once in there when I got an eyelash stuck on my eye. It was irritating the hell out of me so I went to the bathroom so I could see it in a mirror and just couldn’t get the damn thing out. I must have been in there for twenty minutes just poking myself in the eye repeatedly. God knows what the staff thought when I came out, I must have looked like I’d been bawling my eyes out.
London being London, there are a few genuine 24-hr cafes, such as the pleasingly unreconstructed one opposite Liverpool Street station. There are a few very good Turkish-run cafes in my particular suburb too – plus they’re half the price of a Starbucks.
At what time, exactly, did people start thinking it was normal to pay £2.50 for a coffee, however outsize it was?
Search me, I’m still struggling to understand why we adopted ‘Venti, Grande, Tall’ as usable measures instead of ‘Small, Medium, Large’
Confusingly, all the chains use different terminology as well, so you end up with a dreadful mishmash of “primo”, “regular”, “massimo” etc. Although having said all that the aforementioned 24-hr place couldn’t understand the concept of a “mug” of coffee recently, desipte having it prominently displayed on their menu.
I usually just say “small”, and point if necessary.